Chemistry of life.

[nonico]

I found this chart & since smoking & quitting smoking is all about chemicals I thought this might interest you. The trick apparently is to have lots of serotonin for happiness - there are many pages on the net guiding you on diets & lifestyles rich in serotonin - here's one of them. Smoking is said to increase dopamine - hence the risk of depression when we stop - again, exercise is said to increase it.

marksdailyapple.com/seroton...

[AngryBear]

Something I thought of after reading this was who finds quitting less stressful. Interestingly some of the people who spring to mind (eg Francob) were the people who got into running or riding a bike. I'm not saying these people didn't have a hard start but seems once they got into running, riding a bike, going to the gym regularly etc they seemed happier and more solid in their quits.

On a personal level I can relate to that; my first stage was a bit rough but after about eight weeks I started running and haven't suffered much since. The usual triggers have to be dealt with but on a day to day basis I don't miss it; I'm just working towards the Half Marathon next month, and it helped at the start of the running to know that if I smoked then the run wouldn't happen, and I had been pledged too much sponsorship early on to let anyone down

[AngryBear]

It's definitely helped me, I can say that!

That's very kind about the donation Karri, but people on this forum help in other ways already; keeping me off the fags so I have half a chance of getting round the course....

[nsd_user663_53617]

I agree that exercise definitely helps, it firstly gives you an energy or buzz and secondly after quitting it is amazing how much fitter you feel by not smoking. I would recommend it to anyone on their quit journey.

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Chemicals and addiction

Hi Karri - I have a Berocca dissolved in water every morning. I think I like the taste

As for chemical balance and giving up smoking - I know that I could not have given up smoking if I hadn't been doing yoga for quite a few years. I started to realise that after a lot of yoga, smoking would give me a hangover - I was getting an excess of dopamine and the hangover occurs when the dopamine level drop. Same with drinking - it's when the excess dopamine, from drinking, goes down the hangover occurs. All addictive behaviour is chemical in origin.

At a certain level, I've simply swapped smoking for yoga, but that's ok by me. I really do think that for a lot of people who find it exceptionally hard to give up smoking the answer may lie partly in regulating their dopamine levels with exercise.

Running as exercise is not for everyone - it can wreck the knee joints if done outside on hard ground. However, many people run on a treadmill inside instead. If someone is too embarrassed to be seen exercising outside, maybe gentle beginner's yoga is for them.

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Chemicals and smoking

Hi Smile

I agree with you - quitting smoking is all about biochemical changes in the body. It helps me to stay quit, like you too, to think of what I need to do to get the biochemical balance right. Often with me it's exercise that helps the most.

I got the chart off one of my favourite sites:

facebook.com/IFeakingLoveSc...

The chart was posted on February 9 2013 if you want to find it just scroll through the posts.

[nonico 7 Years Smoke Free]

Posted on the net

Hi Smile

When I said it was posted on Feb 2, I meant on the science thread on the net not on this forum. People post to the IFLS daily and I was Feb 2 that I found it on there - that's what I meant when I said scroll down & find it. I happened to post it here on Feb 2 too but that's not the Feb 2 that I meant.

Sorry about the misunderstanding.